Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Read Shockya's exclusive interview with Corey Feldman and actor/writer/producer/director Alex Loy, whose upcoming musical comedy, ‘Operation Belvis Bash,’ is scheduled to have a limited theatrical release in June 2011. Loy portrays the title character, Belvis Bash, a struggling rock and roll musician who goes to Afghanistan to win over the Afghani people. Feldman portrays comedian Samuel Stilman, who joins Belvis on his journey, but the two are put in danger after they encounter infamous terrorist Abdul. Feldman and Loy discuss with us, among other things, how they prepared for the movie and how much support they have received from the public.

Written by: Karen Benardello

Shockya (SY): ‘Operation Belvis Bash’ follows the title character, a rock and roll musician, as he travels to Afghanistan to win the hearts of the Afghani people. Why were you attracted to the movie and this topic?

Corey Feldman (CF): Well, basically for me, doing what I do, being a rock musician for years now, doing what I do for as long as I have, I need to keep challenging myself. I like a challenge and make myself stretch, or take a leap further than I have in the past. When I saw this script, the first thing that I thought was, this is great. This is like a 40-year-old, fat Jewish guy, I need to play this role. I said to Alex, “Thanks for sending me the script.” I basically told Alex, if I’m going to do this, I need full prosthetic make-up, I need the ability to basically do whatever I want with this character. I can’t even tell you really what he’s going to look like or what he’s going to say once he walks out on the stage. It’s kinda going to be like, roll the cameras and see what you’re going to get. That’s what we did, and it was an interesting experiment, and at the end, I think we got a pretty good result.

SY: So how did you prepare for the role?

CF: Well, I went to beat up on a bunch of kids in a school yard for awhile. After that, I took advantage of some disabilities. No, I’m just kidding. I don’t know. I guess it was the darkest recesses of my mind in some way. I mean, the character was so far removed from me as a person. I guess it was kind of a combination of everything I’ve ever hated in people. I mean, he’s that guy you love to hate. He’s very opinionated, very cold, very callous, opposite of me. But that’s what I think made him so fun, because literally, the moment that make-up came on, I literally became this other person. You don’t have to make excuses for this guy because he’s completely inexcusable. Everything about him is just wrong. But that said, I guess it drives the message home that much better, that when you realize at the end, it’s about everything you think it is.